I really have an interest in all things tech. One field of technology that I haven’t previously been able to write about is that of web programming and hosting. Other than Zerosign, I happen to run a few other sites as well. The other sites are mainly blogs, but one of them is a fairly new image hosting site. I had never operated a site like this before so I thought it would be fun to work on. My plan was to set up the site, put some ads on it, and let it run on its own. The following is a step by step guide showing just how easy it all was.

First I needed suitable hosting. I have tried a couple different hosts but by far my favorite is GriffsH.P. (not affiliate link). They are a small firm but have a very dedicated staff. Whenever I call them, I always get a live person to assist with my issues.

The next step was to find a suitable script. While I am a programmer, I don’t know PHP that well so I decided that the easiest thing would be to find a script that I could alter for my own purposes. I was looking for a simple, easy to modify, free script that served the purpose of easily uploading and hosting images. Using Google, I was able to find a few suitable nominees, but chose Uploader v6.1 for my site.

For this experiment/project, I decided to use an old domain name I had sitting around unused: www.7ypo.com. I forwarded this domain to my new host, ran the install script for the Uploader v6.1 and set out to customize the code. This script came with ALOT of functions that I simply wasn’t interested in. Also, it required users to register and login before they could upload anything. I really wanted my site to be as easy to use as possible, so I basically hacked the poor script to bits. I took out all the registration code and tried to keep the functionality as simple as possible from the user’s perspective.

I then searched for a unique look for the site. I purchased a simple looking template design and put it to use. All I had to do then was put up the template and align all the elements to fit within the borders.

Within a few hours, my image hosting site was already coming together. As I mentioned, this really is more of an experiment than anything else. I simply wanted to have an automated site that could attract hits without requiring too much upkeep from me. However, the hard part is still to come: I need to generate traffic. Part 2 of this tutorial will address the business side of the project including advertising, traffic generation and the profits.